Effects of Lupine Green and Root Manure on Yield of Subsequent Rye

Sustainable agriculture aims to avoid or minimise the use of non-renewable production inputs. To achieve these objectives, farmers employ a variety of alternative production and management practices and try to maximise the use of (i) on-farm resources such as legumes and manure to provide plants with nutrients, (ii) crop residues, covering crops and conservation tillage to control soil erosion and nutrient leaching, (iii) crop rotation to control weeds, insects and diseases, (iv) energy conserving tillage system to save energy and reduce operation costs. This way, farmers seek to minimise their dependence on costly off-farm resources. Lupine can fix enough atmospheric nitrogen to meet or slightly exceed their own nitrogen requirements. One important aim of the research has been to investigate the benefit of lupine to the following rye crop in the treatments of Westsik’s crop rotation experiment.